I have had the pleasure for the last two weeks of having my grandchildren visiting. During the visit the matter of my blog came up. These kids are 11 and 8 and are very computer savvy. When we discussed the “Moron of the Month”, they had some questions. “How do you decide Grandpa? Can we help you pick?” I explained that the biggest problem I had was not the shortage of candidates, but the abundance of them. This month is certainly no exception. With the Liberals in charge it gets very easy.
For April the choice is clear. She is Janet Napolitano, head of Homeland Security and former Governor of Arizona. In the far out event that you have not followed the news regarding Ms. Napolitano, she and her department have issued a report and a BOLO (police talk for be on the lookout) to police departments for would be terrorists or candidates who might become terrorists. Her report, which she signed off on, indicated that the place to find these terrorists is in returning veterans from war zones. She has determined that these gun loving right wingers are prime candidates for becoming terrorists.
The liberals in our society apparently think anyone who doesn’t toe the mark and jump on their band wagon of leftism is a threat to our country and to our way of life. There is a threat all right but it is not from returning veterans. No, it is from those who believe that anyone who thinks like a traditional American and believes in the Constitution as written, who believes in the second amendment, and who might possibly attend church, could become a problem. The idea that those who have put their lives on the line for our freedom, giving up their freedoms in the process could somehow now become a threat to our government is just ridiculous. Without their sacrifice, Ms. Napolitano, we would have no country. Without their selfless decision to defend this country, Ms. Napolitano, you would have no job. Your willingness to issue the statement to police departments all over the country warning about returning veterans qualifies you as April’s “Moron of the Month”.
Ms. Napolitano did get on television and issue the standard non-apology apology, but it fell flat on its face. If she didn’t agree with the report she issued, why did she sign off on it? Did she read it? Did she really think that the citizens of this great country would just sit by and let this nonsense go unchallenged? Since the report has been out, Napolitano has been crucified by veterans groups, many Members of Congress, and Americans everywhere. Her own party has been up in arms as well.
I am on record saying that I would not be critical of President Obama unless and until he screws up. I will continue that pledge but, somebody in that Administration better be paying attention to what the underlings are doing. At their current rate of travel, they could be the shortest running government in modern times.
I want President Obama to succeed. I want our country to succeed. This is America. If I wanted to live like a European, I’d move to Europe but like most of you I want America to be America. I want my freedoms protected not squandered. I expect veterans to be respected for their sacrifice and their service. I don’t want to be embarrassed by some moron who happens to have a high level job and just happens to have some semblance of authority.
True Americans will not tolerate much more of the nonsense we have been subjected to so far in this new Administration. Let this be a heads up for them. Get a handle on the idiots who put their faces on television and spout off. They are speaking for you President Obama.
Ron Scarbro April 19, 2009
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7 comments:
I don't envy you having to pick one moron each month but you did a good job. What I really want to know is if people are supposed to be tolerant of different cultures shouldn't they also tolerate the American Culture that has served us so well?
Let's not confuse what the real issue is of this report. That our young soldiers, many just kids are a target of these terrorists groups, home grown and otherwise. These brave young men and women, many single with tough family lives to come home to after tours of duty have little support in the "real" world. They don't know how to deal with everyday decisions, cannot follow directions from employers or instructors because these people have not authority in their eyes. They've seen the worst of what human's can do to each other and that makes them easy prey for extremists groups from all sides. Let's make it our pledge to honor these soldiers with our support when they return not just with our words, but with our actions.
Mr. Scarbro,
I wish to respond to your post of April 19; however, I do not wish to respond from a political point of view. I am troubled by what you have written not as someone who disagrees with your politics (liberals and conservatives will always disagree, and that’s okay) but as someone who is a rational, educated, and patriotic American.
You write, “The liberals in our society apparently think anyone who doesn’t toe the mark and jump on their band wagon of leftism is a threat to our country and to our way of life.” As a rational person, I know that one cannot logically lump millions of people with liberal-leaning views into the same heap, or, to use your metaphor, onto the same wagon. This is what’s known in the world of logic as the fallacy sweeping generalization. Just as I cannot say that all conservatives hang on every word that comes out of Rush Limbaugh’s mouth (and thus I don’t say that), you cannot say that all liberals consider conservatives a threat (and thus you shouldn’t say that). Debate rooted in rationality is a good thing; debate predicated on illogically drawn conclusions gets us nowhere.
Along with your statement about liberals stated above, you go on to say that liberals believe that “anyone who thinks like a traditional American and believes in the Constitution as written, who believes in the second amendment, and who might possibly attend church, could become a problem.” Allow me to point out with a real-life example how off the mark that statement is:
I am a liberal. Some would consider me extremely liberal. Yet, I am happily married to a conservative Republican. We disagree on many issues, but I do not consider him, or his conservative family members whom I like and admire, a threat to my way of life. Nor do I worry that my aunt—a die-hard conservative who donned a hat stapled full of tea bags at her local tax day “Tea Party”—could become a problem.
A proud American, I revere the Constitution as the driving force behind our country’s leading place in the world. The daughter and sister of avid pheasant, duck, and goose hunters, I support gun ownership as protected by the Second Amendment.
As someone whose parents scraped together tuition for me to attend Catholic grade school, junior high, and college, and, as someone who chose to earn her Master’s degree from a Catholic university, I too attend church. I do not consider my fellow parishioners a cause for concern. Nor do I fret about my husband, a conservative Lutheran.
In response to your specific argument that Janet Napolitano is a “moron” for her report involving veterans, I ask that you look again at the report in question. The document stated, “Rightwing extremists will attempt to recruit and radicalize returning veterans in order to exploit their skills and knowledge derived from military training and combat.” Where in this sentence does it say that veterans are the extremists bent on harming America? Where does it say that veterans are the radicals?
Nowhere, and that’s my point.
What the report does say is that radicals are drawn to veterans because radical groups want and need people with military training. They could just as well be drawn to people like you who know how to use the Internet to communicate your ideas to a large audience, or to people like my husband who could set up their computer/communications network, or to people like my brother, a doctor, who could take care of their wounds if they ever followed through on their battle plans. To act on their diabolical plans, however, what they need most is people with military know-how. And who better to recruit than members of the best-trained military in the world?
That some veterans might actually side with the extremists is difficult to imagine, but it is, tragically, not outside the realm of possibility. In the military as well as anywhere else, there are inevitably individuals who feel displaced, forgotten, ill-used, lost. One need only read the latest figures on suicides committed by soldiers returning from Iraq to realize this sad fact. It is these troubled individuals extremist groups prey upon.
So, when you write that “[t]he idea that those who have put their lives on the line for our freedom, giving up their freedoms in the process could somehow now become a threat to our government is just ridiculous,” you are misconstruing the point. The point is not that we should be on guard against veterans; it’s that we should be on guard against extremists who might try to pull veterans over to their side. To this end, we must treat our veterans well, making sure they get every bit of the help they need upon returning from service.
You also write, “She [Napolitano] has determined that these gun loving right wingers are prime candidates for becoming terrorists.” Here you are putting words in Napolitano’s mouth that just weren’t there. You are assuming, based on your evident distrust of Democrats in general and Obama appointees in particular, that because she is a Democrat, she must see veterans as “gun loving right wingers.” You are reading into the statement your own unfounded prejudices against liberals instead of seeing the statement for what it actually says.
Contrary to what your writing suggests you may believe, not all liberals (in fact, none at all that I know personally) consider our country’s veterans “gun loving right wingers.” My own father, whom I respected and adored, served our country in the European Theater during World War II. After his death a number of years ago (the local veterans honored him at his funeral with a twenty-one gun salute), my mother began seeing another fine man, a WWII veteran who served in the Pacific. Moreover, my nephew currently serves proudly in the Army National Guard, and is a better young man for the experience. You will never hear me, or my family, or my friends, labeling these men “gun loving right wingers,” just as Napolitano did not label veterans that way.
You ask in your post, “If she didn’t agree with the report she issued, why did she sign off on it?” When she apologized, though, Napolitano did not say she didn’t agree with it. She said she was sorry it offended people. In an interview on Fox News, she said “that her intent was not to ‘offend or castigate all veterans,’” but at the same time she defended the report’s content. Yes, this is the classic non-apology apology, as you maintain. But she didn’t have anything to really apologize for. Even the national commander of the VFW went on record saying that the report "should have been worded differently" but that its information was important in keeping our nation’s defenses informed and prepared.
A final note:
I can’t tell you how much it troubles me to read that you are modeling to your eight- and eleven-year-old grandchildren that it’s all right to call people “morons.” Your professed reasons for doing it aside, name-calling is wrong, and it’s wrong to teach children that it’s okay, however indirectly. As a teacher, I see the awful effects of name-calling at school every day and try my best to fight against it. To know that it’s being promoted in the home by people who should be models of decency makes me ill.
In his comment to your post, Bo Lumpkin asks, “What I really want to know is if people are supposed to be tolerant of different cultures shouldn’t they also tolerate the American Culture that has served us so well?” My answer to that is, if the American Culture you and Bo Lumpkin support is one in which people such as Janet Napolitano—people who have served their country tirelessly and faithfully—are branded “Morons of the Month” and are dragged through the dirt of poor logic and unmitigated prejudice, then we should also ask if that culture is worth tolerating—and if it is indeed serving us well.
Thank you Mary Jane for your thoughtful comments. Of course we disagree. For anyone wishing to read the report it is available at www.freedomalliance.org. If you read the report and come away with a different opinion than I, that is your option. Mary Jane I appreciate your visit to the site and hope you will come back when you can. Perhaps some information and opinion will be of value to you.
Ron
I loved your post and agree with it wholeheartedly. May I nominate Mary Jane as May's Moron of the Month. She is a prime example of liberal. "I wasn't raised that way and none of my family agree and I really don't know what is going on, but I agree with it."
And this is why I rarely blog.
I wrote a thoughtful response in which I tried to remain respecful yet still speak my mind.
Ron wrote a respectful note back. A good dialogue had begun.
Now, it's back to namecalling. If you want to play that game, I can play it, too. How's this: If someone calls me a moron, but that person is a moron, that makes me a genius.
So, thanks for the compliment.
like I said...
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